2015 Summer Required Reading

9th EnglishStudents will choose ONE of the following books:

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Available for $16.00 (ISBN:978-0-14-200174-5 )The Secret Life of Beestells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the town’s most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi - Available for $10.00 (ISBN:978-0-316-05619-9 )In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could...

American-Born Chinese by ﻿Gene Luen Yang﻿- Available for $10.00 (ISBN:978-0-312-38448-7)Jin Wang starts at a new school where he's the only Chinese-American student. When a boy from Taiwan joins his class, Jin doesn't want to be associated with an FOB like him. Jin just wants to be an all-American boy, because he's in love with an all-American girl. Danny is an all-American boy: great at basketball, popular with the girls.

9th Pre-AP Students will choose ONE of the following books:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - Available for $9.00 (ISBN:978-0-141-44114-6)Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves?

Bless Me, Ultimaby Rudolfo Anaya - Available for $8.00 (ISBN:978-0-446-60025-5) Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past-a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger- - Available for $9.00 (ISBN: 978-0-316-76948-8)The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - Available for $9.00 (ISBN: 978-0-8125-5070-2)(We have several new copies that have been donated and will be free on a first come first serve basis.)In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine.

10th Pre-AP EnglishStudents will choose ONE of the following books:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- Available Soon (ISBN:978-0446310789)Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbirdtakes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

Matched by Ally Condie - Available for $10.00 (ISBN: 978-0142419779)Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander.

The Help by ﻿Kathryn Stockett﻿-Available for $16.00 (ISBN: 978-0425245132)Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri - Available for $6.00 (ISBN 978-0-451‐53139‐1)Dante's Inferno, widely hailed as one of the great classics of Western literature, details Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell. The voyage begins during Easter week in the year 1300, the descent through Hell starting on Good Friday.

11th AP & GT/Humanities III

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass - Available for $5.00 (ISBN: 978-0-7434-8777-1)He was eloquent and articulate - obviously well-educated. And sophisticated, too. He was also a slave who escaped to freedom. But no one believed that, so he published his life story in 1845 to answer the skeptics. Not content to rest on the favorable attention his book received, he recruited black soldiers for the Union army and organized a campaign to educate the newly freed citizens.

Instructions for students and parents to join Remind 2015 Future AP Language with Ms. Smith:

Instructions for students and parents to join Remind 2015 Future AP Language with Ms. Lloyd:

12th AP & GT/Humanities IV

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – Available for $5.00 (ISBN: 978-0-553-21247-1)Few creatures of horror have seized readers' imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein. The story of Victor Frankenstein's terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. Considering the novel's enduring success, it is remarkable that it began merely as a whim of Lord Byron's.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster - Available for $16.00 (ISBN: 978-0-06-230167-3)A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster’s classic guide—a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable.While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes-of the ultimate professional reader, the college professor.

HISTORY REQUIRED READING

9th PreAP Geography

Students enrolled in 9th PreAP Geography will not have a Summer Required Reading or Assignment.

9th AP Human Geography

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societiesby Jared M. Diamond- Available for $19 (ISBN: 978-0-393-31755-8)In this "artful, informative, and delightful" book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures.

The 9th Humanities Summer Assignment is located on Canvas, our online Learning Management SystemCanvas.The course is open enrollment. Each student will self-enroll in the course through the following URL:

AP & Humanities II World History

TheAPWorldHistorySummerAssignmentis located on Canvas, our online Learning Management System.Thecourseisopenenrollment. Each studentwill self-enrollinthecourse through the following URL:

https://canvas.mckinneyisd.net/enroll/Y9JB7T

The Summer assignmentcanbefoundundertheModuletab. Students should explore Canvas and becomefamiliar with Canvas as this will be a learning tool that will be utilized throughout the year. Please use thetemplatesprovidedforchapters1-3.All notes MUST be typed and will besubmittedthefirstweekofschoolinCanvas.When classes begin in August, your teacherwill providedirections onsubmittingtheassignment.Therewill bea70question testthefirstweekofschool.

AP US History

Colonial America: A Very Short Introductionby Alan Taylor- Available for $12 (ISBN: 978-0199766239)Over the last generation, historians have broadened our understanding of colonial America by adopting both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-continental perspective, examining the interplay of Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the flow of goods, people, plants, animals, capital, and ideas. In this Very Short Introduction, Alan Taylor presents an engaging overview of the best of this new scholarship.